Sen. Rubio's sip of water sets social media ablaze

In this frame grab from video, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio takes a sip of water during his Republican response to President Barack Obama's State of the Union address, Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2013, in Washington.

WASHINGTON — “I am now the proud owner of the most famous bottle of water in American politics,” Todd Harris, Marco Rubio’s political adviser and spinmeister tweeted in the early morning hours of Wednesday.

It was the Rubio camp’s spin on an avalanche of tweets in response to the Republican senator’s response to the State of the Union address, a partly successful attempt to laugh off the sip seen ‘round the world.

Rubio’s water-bottle-gate moment set political gossips atwitter, but seems unlikely to have much shelf life. It did at least distract momentarily from the Florida senator’s moment as the Republican pitchman on nationwide TV — a sign of our close-up media culture and the rapid sweep of social media.

Rubio’s sober message about the national debt was nearly lost in the clutter when the senator interrupted an otherwise confident-sounding rebuttal speech by reaching well off camera to grab a water bottle and take an audible gulp. It was not the smooth delivery TV viewers have come to expect.

Rubio, a savvy tweeter who seems quite comfortable with social media, took part in the fun by sending off a picture of the Poland Spring bottle and labeling it the Republican response.

“Great move by Rubio to show he’s got a sense of humor,” one defender tweeted.

Others were not so kind.

“I don’t always drink water, but when I do, I prefer to be awkward,” one wag tweeted. “Stay thirsty, my friends.”

“Marco Rubio: the man you want to have a desperate gulp of water with,” said another.

“EBAY it,” another said of the bottle. “I bet it goes for more than Twinkies did after the scare.”

This brouhaha does not appear to have legs, because it does not seemed tied to a perceived weakness.

When a wild hare once attacked Jimmy Carter’s canoe, the quirk of nature reinforced the idea that he was a hapless president. When Dan Quayle looked like a deer caught in the headlights in a debate, it reinforced the idea that he was a dummy. When George H.W. Bush glanced at his watch in a debate, it reinforced the idea that he was aloof during hard times.

Rubio, usually a telegenic presence, was visibly sweating Tuesday night under the hot lights of TV; he wiped away beads of perspiration five times during his 14-minute speech.

ADVISORY: Users are solely responsible for opinions they post here and for
following agreed-upon rules of civility. Posts and
comments do not reflect the views of this site. Posts and comments are
automatically checked for inappropriate language, but readers might find some
comments offensive or inaccurate. If you believe a comment violates our rules,
click the "Flag as offensive" link below the comment.

Your mouth gets dry when you lie. And a lie has the taint of death to it. There's only one truth. People like Rubio, DeSantis, go to Washington for one thing - to make money. Influence peddling, representing corporate interests and the interests of the super rich over the interests of the ordinary people who you supposedly represent is where the money is. And all these all-American, flag waiving, red blooded boys come home rich. The trick is convincing the suckers to vote for you while you cut their standard of living out from under their feet.

Rubio is not a demon. He's just a guy who wants to make money. The opposing argument - which can never exist in the mind of the sucker, only the empty rejoinder - is that Americans want their democratically elected legislators to represent their interests on the economy, on jobs, on the safety net, on defense, on education, on rebuilding the crumbling infrastructure, revitalizing American industry, restoring America to the greatness it had before the people who Rubio represents - corporations are people - cannibalized the greatest economy in modern history.